There hasn’t been much quilting going on in this house lately. I am still working on the borders for that Stack’N Whack. It is a good job no one is paying me by the hour to finish that quilt because they would never afford it when I am done!

These are two pictures of my husband painting the stair well. It made me nervous to see him on his homemade scaffolding as he painted. My husband paints and I clean up after him. The arrangement seems to be working.

This has proven to be the perfect opportunity to sort through things in the hall closets and thoroughly clean and wash things in and on top of cabinets as they are put back in their places. Some things will never be returned–they will just be discarded.
You can really see the contrast in the old wall colour – white – and the new paint. Quite a change!

What you can’t see in this second picture is the ladder that is holding up the plank on the far end. The plank is balanced on the top of the ladder on one end and on the upstairs floor on the nearest end. Notice the coffee cup–never too far away!

Others have not only shown us their pincushions, but have shown us the other treasures in their quilt studios as well. These are three little Hallmark Christmas ornaments that my mother has given me over the years. Each one has a “quilty” theme so I don’t want to put them away after Christmas. These ornaments live in my quilt studio year round.

Today I have been working at putting together the Stack’N Whack blocks that I made over a year ago. The blocks are now all together and the sides are squared up – ready for borders. If all goes well, I should be able to put on the borders tomorrow.

We are also painting the living areas of the house – living room, dining room, hallway, and stairwell. The walls were previously an off white–very boring. I chose an olive green to paint the walls. The colour is called, Moselle and is General Paint number 8184. I wanted the darker, 8185 Ardmore Green. My choice was a little too much for my husband–he thought the colour was too dark. We compromised and went with the colour that was one shade lighter (8184). My husband has agreed that after we have finished painting all the walls but one, we can decide if we want to paint that last wall a shade darker–8185. I think that is a fair compromise. The walls are turning out fabulous.

Everyone seems to be showing pictures of their pincushions, so I will join in too.

These are the three pincushions that I currently use. The black and gold round one on the left was a pincushion that we made in a workshop at our Guild one evening. The workshop was to teach us how to work with wool. The cushion is filled with lizard sand to keep pins sharp. The top of the cushion is four gold hearts on a round base. I bought the ladybug and added it as a personal touch. Each heart organizes one of my pin types. The ladybug keeps track of the needles.

The silver pincushion in the center of the picture is not a pincushion at all. It is a magnetic dish used by mechanics to keep track of bolts and such when they are working on motors. It has a huge magnet as a base. I use this dish to keep my corsage pins that I use on the long arm. The “arms” or rollers on the long arm are metal and this dish sticks very neatly to the long arm as I am either pinning on a quilt or removing it. Very slick! My dad is a retired mechanic. I had a hard time finding one of these bowls. When I mentioned to him that I was looking for one, he knew exactly where to find me one. Thanks Dad!

The chicken pincushion on the right was a gift from a quilting friend. I use this pincushion to store safety pins. I no longer pin my quilts but there always seems to be a need for a safety pin in this house. Since the safety pins never seem to make it back to their container, I started just sticking them into the chicken. We always know where to find a safety pin now.

Update: Several people have asked what lizard sand is. Lizard sand can be purchased from your local pet store. It is merely sand that has been screened and cleaned so that it is suitable for housing your pet lizard in your aquarium. Because it has been sterilized for the lizards, it is perfect for our pincushion–no bugs or surprises in this sand.

I finished my BQ quilt. This top is not yet quilted and I have pinned it to the quilt hanging in my entrance so the picture shows the edge of my sunflower quilt peeking out around the edges.

This top finished at 48 1/2″ square. This pattern goes together quickly and is very fun to do. When I cut the pieces out for this top, I cut an equal number of pieces to finish a second top. One of the quilts will go to my mother and the second one will stay at my house.

If you look at the previous post you will see that there is a shelf above the sunflower quilt in our entrance. LindaJ spotted some items up there and was curious to know what they were. So, here is a closer look.

The first two items belonged to my husband’s great-grandfather. They are woodworking tools used to plane lumber. They are made from wood and are well worn.

The next item is an old scale, confiscated from a discard pile somewhere. This was not an item passed down through our families–just interesting and old.

The next two items are from my grandfather and are irons. I have tipped the one on the left on its side so you can get a view from the top. These irons were used before electricity and were heated up on the old wood stoves of the day then applied to clothing to remove wrinkles.

This is a metal crayon box. This came from my great aunt Eva who was a school teacher.

This bell was from my grandmother who was also a school teacher. This is what the teachers in the small one room schools on the prairies rang to let the students know it was time for class.

My husband and I enjoy old things, aka antiques. I don’t like just any old things, I prefer old things that belonged to members of my family. I currently seem to be the only one in my family who really enjoys this old stuff so I have become the curator of the family museum. I often end up with items that someone feels should be preserved, but which that person does not want to store. I don’t mind, it makes for an interesting home.